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Motivated for near impossibility: How task type and reward modulates intrinsic motivation and the striatal activation for an extremely difficult task

View ORCID ProfileKou Murayama, View ORCID ProfileMichiko Sakaki, Stef Meliss, View ORCID ProfileYukihito Yomogida, Kausu Matsumori, Ayaka Sugiura, Madoka Matsumoto, Kenji Matsumoto
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/828756
Kou Murayama
aSchool of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6AH, UK
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  • For correspondence: matsumot@lab.tamagawa.ac.jp
Michiko Sakaki
aSchool of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6AH, UK
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Stef Meliss
aSchool of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6AH, UK
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Yukihito Yomogida
bDepartment of Mental Disorder Research, National Institute of Neuroscience, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-8551, Japan
cBrain Science Institute, Tamagawa University, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan
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Kausu Matsumori
cBrain Science Institute, Tamagawa University, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan
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Ayaka Sugiura
dDepartment of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Michigan, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202, USA
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Madoka Matsumoto
eNational Institute of Mental Health, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-8551, Japan
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Kenji Matsumoto
cBrain Science Institute, Tamagawa University, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan
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Abstract

Economic and decision-making theories suppose that people would disengage from an extremely difficult task, because such a task does not implicate any normative utility values (i.e. success probability is almost zero). However, humans are often motivated for an extremely challenging task with little chance of success, even without any extrinsic incentives. The current study aimed to address how the nature of the task (luck vs. skill) and the presence of extrinsic rewards modulate this challenge-based motivation, and its neural correlates. Participants played a game-like, skill-based task with three different probabilities of success (i.e., high, moderate, and extremely-low chance of success), in one group without performance-based rewards (no-reward group) and the other group with performance-based monetary rewards (reward group). Participants in the third group played a similar task but the reward outcome was determined in a probabilistic manner (gambling group). Participants in the no-reward group showed increased intrinsic motivation, as the chance of success decreased (i.e. the task becomes more difficult) even if the task was almost impossible to achieve. On the other hand, the reward group exhibited the highest intrinsic motivation when the task had a moderate chance of success, and participants in the gambling group showed decreased intrinsic motivation as the chance of success decreased. The ventral striatum and the ventral pallidum also showed similar patterns of activation. These results suggest that, both at the behavioral and neural levels, people are intrinsically motivated to challenge a nearly impossible task, but only when the task requires certain skills and extrinsic rewards are not available.

Footnotes

  • ↵* Joint first authorship

  • Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted November 02, 2019.
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Motivated for near impossibility: How task type and reward modulates intrinsic motivation and the striatal activation for an extremely difficult task
Kou Murayama, Michiko Sakaki, Stef Meliss, Yukihito Yomogida, Kausu Matsumori, Ayaka Sugiura, Madoka Matsumoto, Kenji Matsumoto
bioRxiv 828756; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/828756
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Motivated for near impossibility: How task type and reward modulates intrinsic motivation and the striatal activation for an extremely difficult task
Kou Murayama, Michiko Sakaki, Stef Meliss, Yukihito Yomogida, Kausu Matsumori, Ayaka Sugiura, Madoka Matsumoto, Kenji Matsumoto
bioRxiv 828756; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/828756

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